I learned the value of colors and shades. I learned depth and how to truly recreate depth for your audience. I learned alot about other artists, but with all of that knowledge the main thing I learned was: Art should not be disturbed.

An artist should not have to fight over what line needs to be curved.

An artist should not have to explain why she made a choice to draw or paint something a certain way because you can’t always explain a feeling.

Art is like fate. You are predetermined to make it to a certain point and you will make the choices to reach that point along the way. You will make mistakes, you will want to quit.

But you wont.

I learned that no matter how much something gives you joy, that joy will always cease once it is disturbed.

You can paint a mural and let your mind escape into the wall, not worrying about edges, bumps and scratches.

Just emptying your mind onto a scarred canvas. Something that once was bare, begging to be filled with light.

You start sketching your design, slowly widdeling away your eraser. Taking every chance you can to look deeper, weeding out the perfection. Until finally, the mess that was once your mind is displayed on the once bare canvas and the feeling you have is undescribable.

To me, art shouldn’t be perfect. Art should break barriers. Disrupt the silence. Art should make the artist and viewers feel.

The viewers should feel every stroke from a paint brush, every dusting of charcoal. Every emotion that the artist layed out on that canvas should be felt without cease.

Finding a light at the end of a tunnel isn’t an easy process. There are barriers, walls, mountains and even mole hills. You will never be able to wake up one day and suddenly decide that none of the problems that have burdened you for years don’t matter.

You can’t build yourself up without being broken down a little first.

This blog is here as a reminder that everything you have struggled with through your entire life has gotten you one step closer to the you that you are meant to be. Cliche’ I know.

Bring on the slow claps.

Ridicule, tears, anger, frustration and fear are all building blocks in your life. Once upon a time you were innocent, happy yes, but completely blind to what was making you happy. Any one can gather joy from a possession or an experience but to actually pull happiness from within yourself, that’s a task.

Happiness is not the absence of problems but the ability to deal with them.